It said 489,400 tonnes of barley was shipped from the country in November 2017, an 87% increase from the previous November.

Russia supplied over 3 million tonnes of barley to foreign destinations during the first five months of the marketing year, which is a 78% increase over that same period in the previous year, UkrAgroConsult said.

It estimates that Russian barley exports may exceed 5 million tonnes in 2017-18.

In terms of exports to specific countries, Russia is seeing its most significant increases to Iran and Turkey, said UkrAgroConsult, noting that exports to Turkey have almost tripled from last season.